Search

Search only in certain items:

Love my home: 99 clutter-free tips in only 10 minutes a day
Love my home: 99 clutter-free tips in only 10 minutes a day
Flora Clarke | 2018 | Home & Garden, Reference
1
1.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review and I wanted to learn new decluttering tips. Unfortunately, I didn’t. This book felt like a school assignment with a minimum number of words required. Words, phrases, and ideas were frequently repeated. For example, in “Chapter 8: Single guy’s tips”, “as a single guy” is in half of the tips. Some of the chapters’ last paragraphs say how the tips discussed in the chapter were handy decluttering tips. The goal of the book is to declutter so it isn’t necessary to say it.

Tip #45, discusses demarcating the boundaries. Demarcate means to set the boundaries so the phrase is redundant. The word doesn’t fit with the rest of the vocabulary used.

Some of the language felt as if it was written by a person who does not live in the United States. We say bunk beds, not bunker beds. We write Tip #23, not #Tip 23. The term “netflix and chill” is often used as a euphemism for some form of sex in the US.

The book needs more editing. It’s an ARC book, but the cover states “only 10 minutes a day”, the inside title page states “20 minutes”.

This is a fast read but I could not recommend it.
  
Black Mirror - Season 5
Black Mirror - Season 5
2019 | Drama, Sci-Fi
Black Mirror has been going downhill since Netflix acquired it from Channel 4.

The first season was fantastic, and the second season wasn’t too bad. It’s like the Black Mirror writers are in a competition to make each season worst than the last.

It used to be speculative fiction, but even that is no more in season 5. I wish there were more than just 3 measly episodes especially with how long it took them to release season 5.

Striking Vipers was the worst episode in my opinion. To me, it focused too much on sex instead of the actual story which had the potential to be good.

Smithereens was the best episode in season 5 although it was just alright. At least there was a heartfelt story behind it all. Plus, the acting was fantastic for the most part. Yes, there were a few shoddy acting bits, but most of it was good.

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too started off being a good episode, but it just turned ridiculous towards the end. It did start with a good message, but the ridiculousness of it turned this episode into more of a comedy. I guess they were just too focused on Miley Cyrus bringing in the viewers instead of the actual story.

I’m really losing hope for Black Mirror. They need to just stop making episodes or hire better writers.
  
40x40

Eleanor (1463 KP) Jun 21, 2019

Kinda stopped watching last season n not feeling like bothering to catch up. Such a shame, strong concept n great first few series....

40x40

Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) Jun 21, 2019

I agree. I keep watching in hopes it will get better, but it just gets worse. =(

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)
1988 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
Horror movie hostess Elvira dreams of hosting a show in Vegas. When she receives saying that her Great Aunt had died she thinks her dreams have come true. Once she arrives at Fallwell, Massachusetts for the reading of the will she finds that things won’t be as easy as she had hoped. As the town turns against her and family secrets are uncovered Elvira needs to find a way to stop her great Uncles plan.
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark brings a backstory to Cassandra Pearson's character Elvira, gothic late night horror hostess. The film starts during one of Elvira’s shows when she receives a telegram telling her to go the reading of a will for a dead relative and, in the events that follow she finds out that she really is a witch.
Elvira is odd in the fact that it is almost in the style of an 80’s teen movie but it isn’t quite one. There are a few teens in the cast but the film does focus on Elvira and other people in the town.
Elvira, Mistress of the dark is rated 15 and is a comedy with a couple of scenes of peril and one jump scare. A lot of the humour focuses on Elvira’s rather ample bosom but in a quite tasteful way, it’s not a ‘Sex comedy’.
  
Closer Than You Think (The Cincinnati Series)
Closer Than You Think (The Cincinnati Series)
Karen Rose | 2014 | Thriller
9
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Different is good
Dr Faith Corcoran, therapist to sex offenders and rapists is on the run. She has changed her identity and moved from Florida to Ohio to escape the man that has been stalking her for years.
En route to her new home, she discovers a woman, naked in the road, in need of help.
Help arrives in the form of Deacon Novak. A mysteriously handsome, white haired man, with unusual eyes, and a long leather coat.
Deacon and Faith share instant chemistry, and D can’t help but feel the urge to protect her. Especially when the naked stranger utters Faiths name.
Unfortunately for Faith, her new home is a playground for a serial killer hellbent on getting rid of Faith, and now Deacon, and all they care about.
Faith and Deacon have to learn to trust each other if they are going to survive, and save his hostages.
Reading this I was gripped from the start, and then caught up in the twists and turns that Rose weaves into the plot line. The characters are really likeable, and you can’t help but feel some of the turmoil they are going through to stay safe. Its longer than my normal reads, but I didn’t let this put me off, not that it was a hardship! I had more difficulty trying to put it down.
  
Bared to You (Crossfire, #1)
Bared to You (Crossfire, #1)
Sylvia Day | 2012 | Erotica
9
8.3 (23 Ratings)
Book Rating
Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness. He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily.

Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private wounds and desires.

The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart

This is possibly my 10th reread I have lost track. So I ask myself why do I keep coming back to this book and series? Well I can honestly say I just love how Sylvia Day writes I've read almost everything she has written. I enjoy reading the Cross series especially this one. Gideon Cross is just so yummy I adore Eva and Cary. I do have people who just don't understand why these books are so enticing to me and no it's not just the sex!! I think this says to me that no matter how hard your life is or how screwed up your past is you can still find love in the darkest places!!
  
40x40

ClareR (5686 KP) rated Anna K in Books

Mar 5, 2020 (Updated Mar 5, 2020)  
Anna K
Anna K
Jenny Lee | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A great debut!
I really enjoyed this reworking of Anna Karenina. I have to admit, 60 or so pages in, I wasn’t sure I was going to stick with it, but I’m glad I did. A majority of the characters in this story come from a privileged background, where money is not something that they or their families need to worry about, and they can have anything (materially) that they want. Anna K seems to live in a different city to the rest of her family, with her Newfoundland dogs and horses, and attends a private school there. She doesn’t hesitate when her brother asks her to come to his rescue and help sort out his love life. She drops everything and gets to work, trying to convince his girlfriend that he has made a huge mistake when he cheated on her. It works. Everyone loves Anna K, after all.
I’m not about to write a synopsis of the whole book, but these characters are really put through the wringer, keeping closely to the ethos of the original Russian author! It’s a really bittersweet ending too.
I should add that whilst it’s a YA book, it’s definitely for the more mature end of the age range. There’s a lot of alcohol, drugs and sex involved.
Many thanks to Readers First for my copy of this book.
  
Charly (1968)
Charly (1968)
1968 | Classics, Drama, Sci-Fi
Touching, sad and moving
Cliff Robertson won a Best Actor actor in 1968 fr his portrayal of a simple minded man who undergoes an experimental surgery first performed on mice to supposedly increase his intelligence.

Charly is a man who wants better for himself and for his simple life. He tries to do better by constantly challenging himself, but it is no use. He is the butt of jokes at his job at a bakery and he doesn't even know it. He can't even beat a mouse at a maze game given out by his physician friends. When a wild chance arises that could resolve all of Charly's woes, he jumps at the chance.

The operation does seem to be a slow success. His intelligence grows as well as his zest for life, his noticing the little things in live and also an interest in the opposite sex. Will his happiness be temporary or permanent?

The acting and screenplay in this film are superb as well as some interesting split screen camera work. Charly's growth and development are in stark contrast from the beginning of the film through his discovery of knowledge.

I had seen this film in middle school I think after we had read the source material "Flowers for Algernon" so I was anxious to revisit.

So glad I did.

  
Under the Silver Lake (2018)
Under the Silver Lake (2018)
2018 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Trippy
417. Under the Silver Lake. A pretty wild mind bender, head scratcher, what the fuck just happened good time! A great recommendation from the Movie Ninja, thank you. We meet Sam, he's kind of a slacker, and about to be evicted from his pad, but he is dating a very nice prostitute. One day hanging out on his patio, he spies a beauty, Sarah, chilling by the pool, and meets her later on while hanging around her dog. And after fun night of chilling, poof, she disappears. And Sam apparently really felt a connection with Sarah over those 2 or 3 hours because this dude goes on a hunt for this girl. Through a crazy couple of dreamlike days we follow Sam through some insane conspiracy theories that lead him through a hobo underground, complete with its own king (Fisher King?) secret sex drug parties, getting crazy to a Brimful of Asha (Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow) and of course the billionaire cults preparing for the afterlife. Think Alfred Hitchcock, Brian DePalma and Stanley Kubrick got together for a movie, and it turned out pretty sweet! Starring a former Spider-Man and a former Venom (didn't recognize him at first, Foreskin is all grown up) But yea, I really liked it, gets pretty crazy!! Check it out! Filmbufftim on FB!